Matene (190? - ?) trapeze artist.

Matene, a Maori, joined a circus at age nine. He worked as a an acrobat and trapeze artist. He was called by a girl’s name, encouraged to dress as a girl even when not performing and generally brought up as a girl.

In June 1933 she was arrested in Auckland after a shopping trip. She was charged with having obtained credit by fraud by representing herself as a woman in a drapery shop. The solicitor for her defence pointed out that she was of a good family and had a substantial income.

The magistrate dismissed the charge as there was no evidence of fraud.

• London Life, July 29th, 1933: 53. Reprinted in Peter Farrer. Cross Dressing between the Wars: Selections from London Life, 1923-1933. Garston: Karn, 2000: 190.

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Old newspaper stories can be annoying in their lack of detail.  Which circus did Matene work for?  It is improbable that Matene was her professional name or the name that she used when shopping for it is a man’s name.  Henare Matene Te Whiwhi is an outstanding Maori of the 19th century.  Nor obviously is it a complete name.

However we are pleased to see that common sense sense prevailed at the trial.

Endry Cardeño (1976 - ) actress.

Cardeño was raised in Cúcuta, Colombia. She transitioned at age 17.

Endry has become an acting star in the soap opera Los Reyes. And since has played the lead role in Cheila, Una Casa Pa' Maita. 2009.

In 2011 she was on the cover of Soho magazine.

• "Endry Cardeño: El travesti que conquista la pantalla chia". La Argentinidad, Feb 3, 2007. http://luchadores.wordpress.com/2007/02/03/endry-cardeno-el-travesti-que-conquista-la-pantalla-chica.
• "Transsexual to grace cover of men's magazine". Colombia Reports, 04 Feb 2011. http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news-lite/news/14118-transsexual-actress-to-grace-cover-of-mens-magazine.html.

EN.WIKIPEDIA  YOUTUBE

Paul Grappe (1891 - 1928) deserter.

Paul Grappe was born in Ronconieres, Haut Marne. He and Louise Landy met in Paris in 1911 and soon married.

Paul was doing his national service as a corporal in the 102nd Infantry regiment in August 1914 when war started. He was sent to the front and was injured a few weeks later. Later in November he lost a finger on his right hand and was accused of self-mutilation. He was found not guilty and told to return to the front. However he chose to desert.

As healthy young men not in uniform attracted much attention, he decided to shave his moustache and to transvest as Suzanne Landgard. Louise found new lodgings. For two years, he stayed in while his hair grew and “destroying the hair roots with electricity”. He made a small living taking in sewing. Louise worked as an artist and cartoonist.

While Paul had never previously worn women’s clothes, he found that he quite enjoyed it.

“I became interested in my appearance as a woman. I began to forget that I was a man. I finally acquired a certain pride in looking pretty.”

Towards the end of the war Suzanne found a factory job, and began to attend the night cabarets of Montmartre and Montparnasse, where she flirted with men.

Suzanne 1925

Susanne and Louise lived for a while in Spain, and returned to Paris in 1922. In 1925 France proclaimed a general amnesty for deserters who had served six months, and Susanne again became Paul.

La famille 1926

The press seized on his story and it was published internationally. Paul found this adjustment much harder than when he became Suzanne. He drank heavily, five litres of wine per day, started to beat Louise and threatened their child.

Finally this had gone too far and Louise shot him, dead. Three weeks later, the child, two years and eight months, died from tubercular meningitis. After a sensational trial, Louise was acquitted, quickly remarried and lived until 1981.

• Paul Grappe. “Lived as a Woman for 10 Years”. The Milwaukee Journal, Apr 5, 1925. http://tinyurl.com/cve98rr.
• “The Historic Instance of ‘Suzanne Langlarde’”. London Life, September 22nd, 1928: 22. Reprinted in Peter Farrer. Cross Dressing between the Wars: Selections from London Life, 1923-1933. Garston: Karn, 2000: 287-8.
• Fabrice Virgili and Danièle Voldman. La garçonne et l'assassin. Histoire de Louise et de Paul, déserteur travesti, dans le Paris des années folles. Paris: Payot & Rivages, 2011.
• “Le Travesti de 14-18”. BibliObs, 09-06-2011. http://bibliobs.nouvelobs.com/essais/20110609.OBS4809/le-travesti-de-14-18.html.

Kathryn Leigh McGuire (1942 – 2011) executive.

Charles McGuire Jr. Was born near Corpus Christi, Texas, the son of a construction business man. From age 9 he worked for his dad’s business. He played football as a teenager, went hunting at weekends and dressed as a girl in his spare time.

He married at 20 and he and his wife moved to Houston and raised two children. He built up a construction materials company, M&C Consolidated Inc as the major seller of stabilized sand in the city.

His wife, a born-again Christian, who had known of his dressing from early on, divorced him in in 1981. McGuire then developed his life as Kathryn, started taking female hormones, had electrolysis and had her nose restructured.

For four years M&C Consolidated Inc was investigated by a federal grand jury for price fixing, and the investigators found out about Kathryn. This became a frequent source of jokes among county officials, and witnesses interviewed by the investigators were all asked questions about McGuire’s lifestyle. McGuire went to the press in 1988 and a color photograph of Kathryn was on the front page of the Houston Chronicle with her claim that she was being persecuted because of her lifestyle.

Following this Kathryn frequently appeared on the Stevens and Pruett show on radio station KLOL where she was noted for her grace in responding to audience comments. She was featured in all the Houston papers. In 1989 she ran for Houston City Council - the first open transvestite to do so - and came second out of three. She gave considerable donations to Houston AIDS organizations, and was on a board to find a cure.

The price fixing investigation was closed in March 1991, with no indictments. Shortly afterwards Kathryn flew to London. Her stay in a hospital to be operated on was filmed by documentary maker Brian Huberman.

Afterwards she lived in in Prague with the idea of opening a restaurant. Then she lived in Amsterdam, then Philadelphia, Atlantic City and California.

Her gay son, James, wrote his first play, Daddy Kathryn, about their relationship. Kathryn turned up for the opening night, and was the center of attention. In 1999 she said of her male persona:

"That wasn't me. That was just a shell I was in, or an image I was projecting to make everybody happy."

In 2002 Kathryn published a novel about a female Jesus with a transsexual mother.

She died at age 68.

*Not the film actress.

• Bob Sablature. “Price-fixing probe called a vendetta/Transvestite's accusations rejected”. Houston Chronicle, 10/08/1988: a.22. www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl/1988_575599/price-fixing-probe-called-a-vendetta-transvestite.html.
• Brian Huberman (dir). The Last Days of Charles/Kathryn. US PBS 1995.  www.brianhuberman.com/filmography/the-last-days-of-charleskathryn.
• Bonnie Gangelhoff. “American Woman: Prague's a lonely town, when you're the only transgendered Astros fan around”. Houston Press, Jun 1 1995. www.houstonpress.com/1995-06-01/news/american-woman.
• James McGuire. Daddy Kathryn. 1999.
• Brad Tyer. “A Star is Reborn, Again”. Houston Press, Apr 15 1999. www.houstonpress.com/1999-04-15/news/a-star-in-reborn-again.
• Kathryn McGuire. Texas Jesus. Victoria, B.C.: Trafford, 2002.
• Richard Connelly. “R.I.P Kathryn McGuire, Houston's Transvestite Socialite”. Houston Press, Feb 7 2011. http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2011/02/rip_charles_kathryn_mcguire_ho.php.
• Mike Tolson. “Transgender exec remembered as a role model”. Houston Chronicle, Feb 12, 2011. www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Transgender-exec-remembered-as-a-role-model-1691496.php.

Daddy Kathryn

Noel McKay (193? - 2004?) menswear retailer, performer

Noel was born in Oamaru, on New Zealand’s South Island. He married his first wife in his twenties.

In the 1960s he worked during the week at an elegant menswear shop in Queen St, Auckland. At the weekends he was a classy female impersonator, and sang on stage for a full hour. He appeared in clubs and cabarets all over New Zealand and Australia.  He was friend of Carman Rupe.


His albums usually had a photograph of himself on drag, but his EPs entitled Party Songs: For Adults Only, were aimed at a straight audience, and included mildly risqué songs, but he also included a little drag/gay humour that the straight listener would miss.

McKay had gender surgery late in life.

• Graham Reid. “Noel McKay: Sweater Girl”. Elsewhere, Jul 9,2010. www.elsewhere.co.nz/fromthevaults/3307/noel-mckay-sweater-girl-1963.

 QUEERMUSICHERITAGE

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McKay's post-transition name is not known.

Antonia San Juan (1961 - ) actress, director, monologist

Born in Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, San Juan went to Madrid at age 19, and started acting. At 29 she had completed transition.

She did stand-up comedy in bars, and has acted in 22 films, and directed 4.  Abroad she is best known for her role as a transsexual in Todo sobre mi madre (All About My Mother), 1999, by Pedro Almodóvar, which led to a lot of speculation about her own history. She has said:

"I'm not a transsexual or a transvestite, There is a lot of confusion about me, but I am an actress, and that is all there is to say about that". 

In 2000 she was presented with the "Woman of the Year" award by the National Board of the Spanish Women's Association. She has her own theatre company, and has gained many awards. She is also a well-known monologist.

In recent years she has been acclaimed for her role in the television series La que se avecina.  Her long-time partner is fellow actor Luis Miguel Seguí, who is also in La que se avecina.

• Luis Alfaro. "Nearly all about Antonia". The Advocate, Dec 7, 1999. Online at: www.thefreelibrary.com/Nearly+all+about+Antonia.-a057828727.
• “Antonia San Juan”. El Mundo. www.elmundo.es/magazine/m18/textos/entrevista1.html.
• www.antoniasanjuan.com. 

MIDSUMMERNIGHTSDREAM  ES.WIKIPEDIA   EN.WIKIPEDIA  IMDB

Passing women, 1800-1950 – a partial list

In the decades and centuries before cross sex hormones became available we know of many more trans men than of trans women.  Female-bodied persons seem to do a better job as passing as male without hormonal therapy than male-bodied persons do as female.  This is partially because  the default assumption in patriarchal society that someone is male until there is evidence to the contrary.

Anyway, here are several known trans women who were able to pass in the period 1800-1950 (not counting the pioneer surgical transsexuals, intersex persons nor two-spirit persons, and not counting those who were out in one way or another).  This is only a small fraction of passing women, but these few pioneers are known.

Lavinia Edwards (1809  – 1833) actress, London.
Sophia Gibons (181? – 1865) house work, Cambridge, Ohio.
Mrs Noonan (? – 1878) laundress, Fort Meade, Dakota Territory.
Eliza Scott (1838- ?) traditional healer, London.
Peggy Yule (1860-1965) circus worker.
Elizabeth Berger (1874 – ?) pastry cook, maid.
Frances Anderson (187? – 1928 ) billiards champion.
Malvina Perry (1881-1934) circus strong women, bearded lady, Baltimore.
Martha Toth (1883-1933) factory worker, Buda Pest.
Lucy Hicks Anderson (1886 – 1954) brothel madam, Oxnard, California.
Frances Carrick (1891 – ?) housewife, Crowne Point, Indiana.
a railwayman’s wife (? – ?) maid, Wales.
Georgia Black (1906 – 1951) housewife, Sanford. Florida.
Pamela Bird (1927 – ) barmaid, domestic work, London.
Mrs Cox (193? – ?) housewife,
Désirée (194? – 196?) housewife, New York.